Separate Rooms: Luis García Montero and the Reading of Experience

Abstract

The strain of contemporary Spanish poetry known as the “poetry of experience” has often been characterized as a more engaging form of lyric, one that comes closer to its reader. This article seeks to challenge this view through close readings of two poems by the leading figure of the movement, Luis García Montero: “Life Vest under Your Seat” and “Garcilaso 1991” (Habitaciones separadas, 1994). Although these poems draw the reader in and encourage him or her to identify emotionally, they ultimately put this sentimental engagement into question, revealing its superficiality and its tendency to falsify and gloss over the subtleties of the poetic vision.